The Penn men's cross country team went into Saturday's regional meet looking to hold on to their seventh place ranking. The Quakers managed to excede their own expectations.
The Quakers finished fifth place in their Mid-Atlantic Region in a field of 26.
Penn's top finisher, Dusty Lieb, earned an automatic trip to nationals, finishing seventh overall.
Lieb ran the 10K course, held at the Canaan Valley Golf Course in West Virginia, in a blistering 30:49.3.
Penn's second best finisher, Nolan Tully, just missed joining his teammate at nationals. He came up short by exactly one second.
"It's a shame," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "Nolan made a great run. He made up more than 50 meters in just a few seconds."
Nevertheless, the Quakers are quite happy with their showing.
"We always thought we were a top-five team, but a lot of little things kept getting in our way--injuries, illness, and inexperience especially," Powell said.
Top-ranked Villanova won the race while Georgetown finished a close second. Princeton finished third and LaSalle took fourth.
"We knew Villanova and Georgetown would run away with it," Powell admitted. "We were just concerned with beating the other teams and we did a great job."
A major reason why the Quakers excelled was their high-altitude course conditions.
"When you're running at 33-to 3500 feet, the altitude takes its toll," Powell said. "Only guys in great shape excel, and that played in our favor."
Powell also believes that Penn was more motivated going into this meet than usual.
"Lately, everyone has been saying that we were overrated," Powell said. "I think it bugged our team and motivated them to prove everyone wrong."
Powell was especially pleased by the performance of freshman Breton Bonnette, who finished 80th overall despite having a case of the flu.
"He had one of the toughest performances of all week," he said. "I was contemplating dropping him out of the race but he wanted to go. That son of a gun ran a great race."
Other top Penn finishers were Stephen Hayes (33rd), Eric Malmstrom (53rd), George Weiner (90th), and Matthew Van Antwerp (97th).
Lieb's run for a national title will take place on November 25th at Indiana State University.
He is one of only two Ivy League runners to receive an automatic bid to the field of the nation's top 38 runners.
"If he runs as well as he did at Regionals, he can surprise a lot of guys," Powell said. "He has a legitimate shot at top-50 which would be unbelievable for a sophomore."
Though the team didn't qualify for nationals, Powell still views the season as a success.
"This is a young team who's starting to believe in themselves," he said. "And that's going to be a dangerous thing in years to come."
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